I am up a little early this morning and going through the mental checklist about our radio station building project.

I am so happy that we have a working antenna, transmission line and transmitter.  We have a computer with a library of audio books.  And everything is connected together so that we can play the audio books through the transmitter and out over the air.  It works!

Now that the end-to-end operation works there are some other equipment spots to fill.

We need a second computer for downloading more audio books and adding them to the library.  An older laptop should work.   Then I will need to install our  system software and configure it to be able to access the playback library.

We must have the EAS/CAP emergency broadcast box.  Since the FCC recently changed the rules it is not practical to buy a used one, so it may be our single piece of shiny new equipment.  After it is acquired we will need to configure it and place it in the “audio chain”, that series of boxes between the computer and the transmitter.

We need more configuration on our playback/library computer so that we can remotely turn the station off if required.  That’s part of the FCC rules.

Somewhere down the line we want to add RDS to our system.  The idea is to configure it to show the current work being played.  (RDS is that thing in your car radio which shows text while the radio plays.)

Streaming! can’t forget streaming.

And website integration of the schedule, the streaming and links to text.

Keep an eye out for a backup power system, a hefty UPS and maybe a generator.

And, be still my heart, maybe a shed or trailer which we could use as a transmitter room.

Ok, ok, don’t wander too far from the goal:  getting a station on the air.  EAS/CAP is required, a second computer is required, remote on/off is required.

I removed that pesky thermometer from our home page.  I was hoping it would be an inspirational tool to help people see how we were making progress.

I decided the thermometer had outlived its usefulness.  It was saying we still need X amount of money based on our wishlist of shiny new equipment.

We are making progress!  But most of it is by going with inexpensive alternatives to our wishlist.  I wish we could buy the new stuff, but I’m more happy that we are checking off the boxes and getting things built even if it means using used or re-purposed equipment.

Yesterday we were up on the tower doing some prep work for our antenna installation.  I hope to get back up there soon and get our antenna installed. When that happens we will be in a position to start some test transmissions.  That will be exciting!